New Jersey State Normal School Diaries Collection

Mary Jane Sergeant was born August 24, 1837, to Gershom Craven Sergeant and Charity Ann Howell Sergeant in Raritan Township, near Flemington, Hunterdon County, New Jersey. She was in the first class of the New Jersey State Normal School, beginning October 1855, when classes were held in Trenton City Hall before the new school building opened in the next term in 1856. Her first teaching experience was in Lambertville School in 1857-1858, before graduating from the Normal School in February 1859. Afterward, she taught in Copper Hill School in Raritan Township. On March 26, 1863, she married Dr. Cornelius Wilson Larison, also an educator, as well as a physician and proponent of phonetic spelling. He founded the Seminary at Ringoes and the Academy of Science and Arts at Ringoes where Mary taught mathematics and other subjects from the 1870s to early 1900s. They had two children: Mary “Polly” L. (Blackwell), and Benjamin. Mary Jane died on April 17, 1917. Her daughter, Mary Blackwell, donated her diary to then Trenton State College during the Centennial celebrations of 1955, where it was transcribed and portions were published in The Signal newspaper.

Ida Frances Totten was born February 21, 1861, to Benjamin Totten and Harriet Monks Totten in Sussex County, New Jersey. She attended Andover Academy, then possibly a Normal School. According to her diary, in the autumn of 1883 she was placed in a teaching position in Greenville (now called Greendell) School, in Green Township, Sussex County, about 5 miles from her home in Andover. But her contract extended to the following term and it is not known whether she taught again or continued with her education. On April 4, 1894, she married Fred Mortimer Hunt, who was a New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton class of 1889 graduate, and also one of the first editors of the Signal newspaper. The pair likely met while he was a principal at Andover School in Sussex County and she was likely living at or near her home. They had several children, though only two lived to adulthood (Leroy and Helen), and made their home in Spring Lake, Monmouth County, where Fred taught before becoming a clerk. Ida died in her mid-40s on October 27, 1907, and was buried in Andover alongside Fred who died in 1928.

Rosena Craig Foster was born September 2, 1890, to Samuel P. Foster, founder of a local bank and editor of the Elmer Times Newspaper, and Fannie Bateman Foster, in Elmer, Salem County, New Jersey. She attended Bridgeton High School, then New Jersey State Normal School in Trenton where she studied Music and Manual Training. According to the school’s Grade Books and Reports, Volume III, her grades were favorable and her final evaluation read: “Has teaching power. Individualizes well and manages a primary grade well. Lacks ease in speaking, but has a sweet voice.” In the spring of 1910, she completed her student teaching in Millville, New Jersey, and graduated in June 1910. According to family history provided by her granddaughter, she was assigned to work at Lafayette Elementary School (to teach music, dressmaking, and shop), in Highland Park, New Jersey, along with her Normal School classmate Mary Celia Whitlock (1891-1977), with whom she shared an apartment. During this time, she met Mary’s brother Frank Boudinot Whitlock, a banker, whom she married on May 28, 1913, in New Brunswick, New Jersey. They had four children and made their home in Highland Park, where Rosena lived for over 70 years. After her marriage, she stopped teaching, but volunteered through much of her life, including for the Red Cross during WWII and local and national chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution. She died at age 99 on March 5, 1990.

Rebecca Gasn, who went by “Reba” was born September 3, 1899, to Russian Jewish immigrants Jacob Gasn and Annie Eisner Gasn, in Monmouth County, New Jersey. Her older siblings were Louis (1888-1917), Samuel (1890-1942), and Sadie or Sayde Blidner (1894-1958); and her younger sisters were Rachel “Rae” Blum (1900-1943) and Miriam “Mona” Weiden (1901-1982). She graduated from Neptune High School in 1918, then attended New Jersey State Normal School at Trenton in 1919. There she was active in Theta Phi which was “a society, which stands for the enjoyment of the Great Out of Doors,” according to the May 1920 issue of The Signal student newspaper, as well as the Camera Club, Glee Club, and Young Men's - Young Women's Hebrew Association. Her younger sister Miriam, who later went by “Mona,” also attended the Normal School during Reba’s second year. She served as a student teacher at Trenton Junction (later Fisk) School in Ewing, then graduated in 1920. Shortly thereafter, she taught the “special class” (Special Education) at the Normal School for about a year. Afterward, she taught “special class” in Atlantic City, and at Monmouth Public Schools, including Belmar, for several decades. She outlived all of her siblings and died on January 25, 1989, in Neptune, New Jersey.